Thursday, May 10, 2007

US Divorce Rate Lowest Since 1970

Despite the common notion that America remains plagued by a divorce epidemic, the national per capita divorce rate has declined steadily since its peak in 1981 and is now at its lowest level since 1970.

It points out when:

America's divorce rate began climbing in the late 1960s and skyrocketed during the '70s and early '80s, as virtually every state adopted no-fault divorce laws. The rate peaked at 5.3 divorces per 1,000 people in 1981.

But since then it's dropped by one-third, to 3.6. That's the lowest rate since 1970.

What's fueling that decline? According to 20 scholars, marriage- promotion experts and divorce lawyers consulted by The Associated Press, a combination of things.

This article looks for a variety of explanations for this but makes only a passing mention at what is I suspect the largest cause for this:

The number of couples who live together without marrying has increased tenfold since 1960; the marriage rate has dropped by nearly 30 percent in past 25 years; and Americans are waiting about five years longer to marry than they did in 1970.

Less marriages ocurring, less divorces naturally follow.

But the article than goes on to a series of different "explanations" while completley missing the reality: with a few exceptions, most marriages occur when a man proposes to a woman (or is pressured into it by a woman via pregnancy or familial-social pressure).

So why are men increasingly refusing to propose enmasse like they used to? The MRA aware know why: the casualties of misandrist divorce laws are everywhere for young men to see, and the increased socialism results in inflation and the requirement that young people need to spend years to attain educations to have enough money to responsibly start families, and finally the changing of societies morals that make attachment free sex available to men (why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?) have all combined to cause a large reduction in marriages or a significant delay in when men willing to get married.

MGTOW is becoming mainstream, but the feminist media either can't or won't recognize it.

6 comments:

In fact, "30% less marriages, 33% less divorces, 10 times more cohabitation" is probably an accurate but unpopular summary.It would be very interesting to see the rates of cohabitation formation/dissolution.

The authors of this article were intellectually dishonest in focusing on only one part of the equation. Such dishonesty is also reflected in the 'blame fathers for fat kids' article on which I commented at my blog.

The U.S. divorce rate is 17.7 per 1,000 married women, down from 22.6 in 1980. The marriage rate is also on a steady decline: a 50% drop since 1970 from 76.5 per 1,000 unmarried women to 39.9, says the report, whose calculations are based on an internationally used measurement.

Mathematically,from 1980 to 2005, divorce rate fell 21.68%BUTfrom 1970 to 2005, marriage rate fell 47.84%which means the divorce rate has not fallen as much as the marriage rate and divorce-to-marriage ratio is still high.(We need 1970 divorce rate or 1980 marriage rate to be more accurate)

"Cohabitation is here to stay," says David Popenoe, a Rutgers sociology professor and report co-author. "I don't think it's good news, especially for children," he says. "As society shifts from marriage to cohabitation — which is what's happening — you have an increase in family instability."

Since stable long-term relationships(marriages) are out, unstable short-term relationships(cohabitation) are in - men and women come and go out of each other's lives - children suffer the most. Quote from : "Children do best when raised with their biological mother and father, preferably cemented by marriage"

Cohabiting couples have twice the breakup rate of married couples, the report's authors say.

This is the most important observation. If we treat these cohabitations as unofficial marriages and breakups as unofficial divorces, just think how much the total divorce rate will increase. This indicates that poeple are simply not ready to commit for long durations. No wonder they are marrying less. And no wonder they are having even fewer children.

And in the USA, 40% bring kids into these often-shaky live-in relationships.

And then people wonder why the children are so directionless in life and prone to violence and crime, alcohol and drug abuse, dropping out of education...

"It's a pretty short period of time for that change (cohabitation) to have occurred and to have taken hold in the way it has," she says.

Thanks to feminist judiciary, anti-male and anti-marriage laws, no-fault divorce, alimony and child support(often without visitation rights)... ! And thanks to the raunch culture, sex is available for free. Welcome to the hook-up generation !

The USA has the lowest percentage among Western nations of children who grow up with both biological parents, 63%, the report says. "The United States has the weakest families in the Western world because we have the highest divorce rate and the highest rate of solo parenting," Popenoe says.

The U.S. divorce rate is 17.7 per 1,000 married women, down from 22.6 in 1980. The marriage rate is also on a steady decline: a 50% drop since 1970 from 76.5 per 1,000 unmarried women to 39.9, says the report, whose calculations are based on an internationally used measurement.

Mathematically,from 1980 to 2005, divorce rate fell 21.68%BUTfrom 1970 to 2005, marriage rate fell 47.84%which means the divorce rate has not fallen as much as the marriage rate and divorce-to-marriage ratio is still high.(We need 1970 divorce rate or 1980 marriage rate to be more accurate)

"Cohabitation is here to stay," says David Popenoe, a Rutgers sociology professor and report co-author. "I don't think it's good news, especially for children," he says. "As society shifts from marriage to cohabitation — which is what's happening — you have an increase in family instability."

Since stable long-term relationships(marriages) are out, unstable short-term relationships(cohabitation) are in - men and women come and go out of each other's lives - children suffer the most. Quote from Bill Muehlenberg: "Children do best when raised with their biological mother and father, preferably cemented by marriage"

Cohabiting couples have twice the breakup rate of married couples, the report's authors say.

This is the most important observation. If we treat these cohabitations as unofficial marriages and breakups as unofficial divorces, just think how much the total divorce rate will increase. This indicates that poeple are simply not ready to commit for long durations. No wonder they are marrying less. And no wonder they are having even fewer children.

And in the USA, 40% bring kids into these often-shaky live-in relationships.

And then people wonder why the children are so directionless in life and prone to violence and crime, alcohol and drug abuse, dropping out of education...

"It's a pretty short period of time for that change (cohabitation) to have occurred and to have taken hold in the way it has," she says.

Thanks to feminist judiciary, anti-male and anti-marriage laws, no-fault divorce, alimony and child support(often without visitation rights)... ! And thanks to the raunch culture, sex is available for free. Welcome to the hook-up generation !

The USA has the lowest percentage among Western nations of children who grow up with both biological parents, 63%, the report says. "The United States has the weakest families in the Western world because we have the highest divorce rate and the highest rate of solo parenting," Popenoe says.